X-MEN, Fantastic Four and the Marvel Cinematic Inception.

For fans of the MCU there are very few worries or burdens that can bring the fanboy goodtime feels crashing down into the dust and dirt as fast as the thought of the house of ideas failing when it comes to the introduction of the X-Men and Fantastic Four.

Having overseen a near perfect run of movies that combined into a multi faceted, layered epic telling the tale of the infinity stones, Kevin Fiege now stands in a quiet, contemplative stare down with his future - and the immense task of changing the rules yet again to cater for two of the biggest brands in comics history.

The simple question being - "How do I make these fit?"

So far strict rules have been established. Boundaries set and reinforced. Characters have grown and evolved before our eyes over 21 films - and the mythos and legacy of the MCU is a daunting one to have to bend further to allow for more names, legacies and clans to enter and share the burgeoning limelight.

How do you solve the problem of the mutants and the Marvel First Family?

Believe me when I say that these questions and more have plagued the main-man behind the entire enterprise that is MARVEL COMICS.

Ike Perlmutter - the publicity shy, multi-billionaire owner and CEO of Marvel Entertainment has long harboured the dream of unifying the universe his company created. Has long hoped to have all the properties under one roof and has long sought to have the First Family and Mutants be introduced into his cinematic playground. So obsessed was he that Perlmutter, famously, even shelved the X-Men and Fantastic Four from the Marvel print rosters as soon as he realised the comics were propping up ailing, dying screen franchises in X-Men (which was schizophrenic at best, and had started to have as many missteps as it did successes) and propagating Fox's insistence of making new (arguably more terrible) F4 films every few years in lame duck attempts at clinging to the rights. A litany of wasted opportunities with a cast of rising stars - all of which were thrown to the wolves with Fox's flaccid, idealess scripts. So to have them so close to his grasp and thus into the cash cow that was Marvel's cinematic universe was a brilliant flash of ego-flexing for him. Only for the chance to blow past wistfully and teasingly.

Few would have believed a second opportunity would raise its head later in the year, let alone that it would be such a massive coup and such a decisive victory for Disney AND Marvel.

So what next?

The merger/takeover has concluded and Disney - $52.4bn lighter in their bank balance - have walked away with what they would argue is $52.4bn better off in their property locker and can finally boast they have now unified their main print properties into one cohesive, giant universe. (Of course, this is accepting for the partnership that is still ongoing with Paramount for shared rights of the Incredible Hulk and Namor The Submariner, and the Sony partnership for Spider-man.)

We finally have the Reed Richards, Johnny Storms and Xavier's school for Gifted Children able to be transplanted into a bursting, bristling, living universe brought to stark and beautiful life by a wealth of artistic and cinematic talent. They finally have the Mutants, cosmic enhanced superheroes and the wealth and mass of characters both properties contain firmly within their sphere of influence and control.

But what next?

The next big step is how to fold these massive properties into a universe that has been meticulously assembled (if you will fogive the pun) over 10 years and 21 record breaking films. With a genius like Kevin Fiege - whose eye for detail, uncomprising vision and stewardship of the cinematic universe has so far been batting way above 90, the idea of bringing in characters and back stories must be equal parts excitin- beyond-words and a logistical, continuity testing nightmare.

However...

On closer inspection of the films already released and the breadcrumbs that have been carefully and intricately woven throughout, maybe the plan for their introduction has been there all along.

Here's an idea...

Rather than introduce the characters and the players straight away, you set the stage. You build into the fabric of the existing universe gentle props and foundation stones upon which the legacy elements of each property can be built.

In many ways, the world of the F4 and X-Men are characters in their own right. No different from the quantum universe that Ant-Man uses as a spine of it's logic. Much like the cross-pollination of the same Quantum realm is the gateway to the multiverse introduced in Doctor Strange, and which was used so expertly in Avengers: End Game.

The Guardians Of The Galaxy has introduced us to the Celestials. Characters who have a massive roll in the upcoming release of THE ETERNALS. Lesser known characters (much like the Galactic cousins) who have big potetial to open doors to hitherto unexplored territory in the MCU. Through these characters we have direct tendrils that wind and spin into the Baxter building and the Fantastic Four.

And that Baxter Building...

Didn't they just sell Stark tower?

Back track a little amount and the world of Sakaar - the battle world of Thor: Ragnarok, is now deep in a revolt. The Grandmaster usurped, the planet screaming for new leadership. The people demanding more entertainment to appease them and keep them occupied... Could this not be the stage purpose built for lesser characters who could play bigger roles in the near future. Characters who tick all the boxes for what is needed for a little planet in a grand universe, that could once again demand the attention it thinks it deserves?

Enter - Mojo.

Sakaar becomes Mojoworld. The entertainment planet that build further on the gladiatorial battle spectaculars that Grandmaster created. Televising it beyond the simple planet based event and beaming it into the holocubes and vidscreens of every ship, planet and asteroid in the galaxy.

A huge stepping stone to the X-Men is then created without over stepping established continuity. Rather than inventing further planets for an already expanded and MASSIVE universe (seriously, we have gone from being the lonely planet Earth to now being one of a dozen or so known, visited and burgeoning worlds, lest we forget the planets that have long died but still hold vestiges of former creeds, species and alien civilisations.) The MCU can repurpose existing worlds and rebrand them, still in-keeping with the material from the comics, and allowing it to be rejigged for the screen to suit purpose and requirement.

Of course, these ideas are just the musings of a rabid fanboy. A fantasy of a man in well into his third decade of love with the comics world, and starting his second decade in love with the cinematic offshoot. Someone who has been engaged in the journey each and every step of the way, and who cannot wait patiently to see how the professionals turn their hand to introducing characters so close to his heart into such a grand tapestry.

Impatient... and eager to find out and witness it all unfold.

Marvel really have a hard job on their hands. One which will no doubt set a few cats among the pigeons. A task that will require skill, subtlety, deft decision making and razor sharp writing to achieve. All things we have seen plenty of evidence of already.

The idea of a John Krasinski directed Fantastic Four movie makes me happier every time I think about it... dream casting wiling away countless hours. (For the interested or curious among you, my casting of choice is Krasinski for Reed Richards, Emily Blunt as Sue Storm, Zac Efron as Johnny Storm and Pablo Schreiber as Ben Grimm. Giancarlo Esposito as Dr. Victor Von Doom and Keanu Reeves as Silver Surfer.) The notion we may finally see Cyclops on the big screen with some real substance, some real pathos and depth - of seeing the original five brought to the big screen in all their glory, it thrills and titilates me. To be able to witness this all being worked out and evolving in front of us is a pleasure we should never take for granted.

So it is.

$54bn dollars exchange. A pause for the deal to be greenlit and confirmed completed, and the ahgonising wait while we sit through a global pandemic that is holding up the next phase of the MCU's constant evolution and growth, of each hanging thread tying off to connect one section of the world with the next... the tapestry growing in size and colour with each new release.

How do Marvel confront such a monolithic question as how to welcome and introduce the FF and the X-Men to the expanding universe?

They trust their creators, they continue their quietly patient, tried and tested methods and they do what they have always done since Jon Favreau unveiled his Iron Man a decade or so ago.

With style, and not a single frame of screen time wasted.

I am giddy with excitement at how this will all happen.

Excelsior.